The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1887-01-01
GERMAN wAcE-woRkERs.
0mcial Figures Full Of Interest 10 Ameri-
can Workingmen.

VImcl0l ElKOf69 r 0Al Oh lnI0T0DB 10 Am0kIe
can workingmen.
The State Department is receiving q
.arge amount of interesting informa-
ton from our consular corps abroad.
Among the recent reports 10 the follow
ing in relation to wages and labor in
Germany:
The common laborers among the
weavers in the mills around Crefeld,
Germany, receive $3.50 per week. and
the day swork is little less than twelve
hours. Carpenters, machinists, spin
ners. etc.. are. paid from 1857 to IS. "a
per week, Consul Potter reports that
these people are able to live on these
wages, Notwithstanding that coffee is
retailed at 80 cents per pound, butter
at 81, beef a. IA and salt pork at IL.
One mill operative gives figures to
show that his family Of four costs on
an average SO cents per week for each
for food. 1t is wonderful how they do
it. Cottages are rented to the em-
ployes by the mill owners at about
$40 per year. and if the family occu-
pics the cottage continuously for 10
years then, by provision OF the con-
tract, the property becomes absolutely
theirs. If the promises are abandoned
before the expiration of that time the
renters accumulated rights are for
fcited. This advantage of this system
to employees and employers is evident
The proprietor secures and retains
good and ski'lful workmen, while the
employe, through kind of compul-
sorry system of saving, secures q home
for his old age.
. Farm laborers about Crefold receive
81 per year with board. when in
charge of teams. Second laborers are
paid only $50 annually with board. A
farm hand when living separately can
earn $l42, the wife being paid Sl1.90
during harvest time. With the sale of
goats milk, pig and vegetables, the
laborer's family receives $228 per an
mum.
Farms around Mayence, in the Grand
Duchy of Hesse, are not conducted on
the.most advanced principles, and the
land is very much cut up into small
parcels and worked by multitudes of
proprietors. and hand-labor plays an
important part Twelve years is the
time for which farm is rented. reports
Consul Smith. and the rental is about
1925 per annum per year.
; Consul Harper, at Munich, reports
that farms in Bavaria are rented at
81. 40 tn SITS per acre, according to
size. Farm laborers receive from 1928
to S71 per Year. with board. Day la
borers. without board are paid 50 to
AZ cents per day for; men, and Is to 50
for women. O. The shortest days work
in winter is ten hours, and the longest
days work in summer is fifteen hours.
In Brunswick Colonel Fox reports
that the method of farming is expen-
sive. and the soil is worked to give the
greatest possibleyield, especially where
the sugar beet is raised. Here the de-
mand for labor is extended. and in beet
raising all classes of hands are en-
ployed. Country schools are closed at
such periods that the children may help
in wedding out the beets. On the larger
estates there are families which have q
bit of land leased from the proprietor
at nominal rental, the members bind
ing themselves to work on the estate.
Members of the family receive the
market wages.
In the vicinity of Gandersheim man,
wife and child will earn S184 per
annum. The proprietor of the Watsum
estate pays men IS cents per day, sum-
mer and winter, working eleven hours
daily. Women bind the grain behind
the scythe. and are paid for such work
80 to 81 cents per day. Men earn so
to II cents. A-&
Consul Dittmer. at Stettin, reports
that proprietors of large estates use the
American threshing machine to some
extent. Farm laborers are paid 81
cents per day. They generally live in
small houses belonging to the estate.
In Alsace-Lorraine, Consul Ballow
states that the farm-owncrs are combin-
ing for an exchange of work, and the
laborers are demanding higher wages.
Consul Tanner of Chembitz, Saxony,
writes that there are large number
of ponds of all sizes which stud the
fields in all directions and are source
of income to the owners. These ponds
TEEN with carp winch are lett TO shit
for themselves until they are year
old. when they are fit for the market,
bringing from IL to 20 cents per pound.
In the winter the ponds yield ice which
is sold alta fair price. The customary
wages paid TO hired servants on farms
is $57 to men and s29 to women per
year with board. Field hands receive s.
cents per day without board. women 81
cents.
Consul Bishoff, of Sonnebergh, Thu
ring;a. states that in SiegePs flannel
factory at Pressneck common hands
are paid $1.67 per week, spinners
49, 81. weavers $3.57.
In Bremen Consul Looming reports
that in the Osnabruck iron-steel works
the wages paid per week Of sixty hours
are So to $3.50 to ordinary laborers
and IS to $6 to skilled hands.